Continental Sport Attack 2 Hypersport Tires

I was pretty excited about the release of Continental’s Sport Attack 2 tires because it meant returning to the Contidrom test facility in northern Germany. The Contidrom campus includes a 2.4-mile dry handling track, a 1.2-mi. irrigated wet course and the perfunctorily named “high speed oval,” a 3.2-mi. course featuring three-storytall, 58-degree banked turns at either end. Watching the horizon go vertical at 185 mph is the most exhilarating experience I’ve ever had on two wheels, and I was eager for more!

Continental is in the midst of a huge push to restore its reputation as a premium tire brand, and the new Sport Attack 2 is leading the charge. This latest hypersport tire uses a new variation of Conti’s Black Chili compound, fresh tread designs and a tuned carcass construction to offer a do-it-all sport tire suitable for aggressive street and track riders.

We started with hot laps on the fast and flowing dry handling course. The SA2 uses Conti’s tried-and-tested Traction Skin technology to create a grainy, lubricant-free tire surface, and I was confdently dragging a knee the frst lap out. The front tire’s broad crown tended to slow turn-in on the Kawasaki ZX-6R and Triumph Daytona 675 I rode, but stability was excellent, with no headshake exiting corners and neutral behavior while trail braking. Traction from both ends was impressive, especially considering we were running manufacturer-recommended pressures of 36 psi front and 42 psi rear! When asked why air wasn’t let out for the track, I was told that it would be too diffcult to accurately re-inflate the tires once they were hot. We’ll have to wait until we get a set of SA2s on a long-term testbike to see how they work with track appropriate pressures.

The SA2s have added silica in the tread compound for improved wet-weather performance over the previous tire, and on the wet course the tires provided enough corning grip to lap the track at a hurried pace. Straight-line grip was good enough to handle wide-open acceleration and rear-lifting deceleration on the Kawasaki ER-6N I rode.

After a few full-throttle sessions on the oval, we embarked on a two-day tour of the German countryside, blasting down the Autobahn and fying along tree-lined back roads on our way to Continental’s factory in Korbach for a tour. By the time we returned to the Contidrom we’d logged nearly 500 miles on the SA2s, yet the “Continental” logosrunning down the center of the tires were still visible. A dual-compound design balances straight-line durability with cornering grip, and the SA2s appear to wear very well. And there’s no doubt that they work well—we rode them in the dry and wet, in hot and cold, on the race track and on twisty roads and they performed superbly. If you’re looking for one set of tires to handle every sporting scenario, the Sport Attack 2s might be for you. They’re available in all common sizes at prices on par with other tires in the category.

CONTINENTAL SPORT ATTACK 2 HYPERSPORT TIRES

PRICE: $165-$175 front; $225-$255 rear
CONTACT: Continental Tires
www.conti-online.com

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